The Day of the Games
by GirlsJustWannaHaveFunds
Summary: The lonely Doctor. The face of the revolution. What could possibly go wrong? (Begins in the middle of "Catching Fire".)
1. Chapter 1

The Doctor looked outside of the TARDIS doors out into the vast universe in front of him. It had occurred to him that he was able to go anywhere, throughout time and space alike, find anyone he wanted, amaze anyone he wanted, have anything that he wanted. But there was one thing missing from his seemingly never-ending life. Ever since Rose had gone from him, Martha left him, and Donna had no choice, he had felt something he hadn't felt in a while. The word...he couldn't bring himself to face his true state. The word loosened itself from the inner workings of his mind, flashed in front of his eyes, settled itself on his tongue, and escaped from his lips:

_Lonely._

Of course, he was the Doctor. He had been alone before, plenty of times, and by this point in his life, he had gotten used to the feeling of being _alone. _But he never had caught on to the feeling of being _lonely._His companions always seemed to provide him with satire and comfort, and he never felt lonely with them. He reminisced as he became caught in his loneliness. Rose...he had loved Rose, and she him. He smirked a bit at the thought of her - all of her.

_Her hair, the way it fell in golden locks around her detailed face._

_Her eyes, the way they sparkled beneath the stars in the Sunflower Galaxy._

_Her smile, the way it held both vulnerableness and mischievousness inside._

_Her soul, the way it was so pure, so full of life, so full of eagerness to be with me._

_And I didn't protect her enough._

_I let her slip away._

He tried his best to focus on the good instead of the bad the best way that he could. The bad thoughts always seemed to intoxicate his mind when her name slipped in. He began to think of Donna, how her sass and satire made her one of his secret favourites. He chuckled as he thought of all of the good times they had together, his most favourite being, believe it or not, the very first day they met, Donna's wedding day. He would miss Donna oh so very much. And Martha...his mind started to bounce around as he thought of her. He felt guilty in a sense, guilty that she had chosen to leave because his selfish impulse caused him to ignore the feelings she had felt for him. He began to think.

_Martha Jones, the woman who saved my life. _

_Martha Jones, the woman who traveled all around the world just to protect me. _

_I believe her now. I always have._

_She is good._

_And she is gone._

He closed his eyes as he wrapped up his thoughts of her. A single tear, just one, escaped from his eye, the form of his sorrow. She was happy now, with Mickey, but deep down inside, he wanted her back with him. She had been such good comfort. _She was so strong, _he thought. _She loved me so much, she stayed by me, knowing I never returned the favour. She saved me, and I never even loved her..._He sniffed. The feeling began to stir up inside of him again, the feeling he loved to hate.

_Lonely._

Before he began to feel _lonely _again,he closed the TARDIS doors and headed back to the controls. He had set the coordinates to 2300, the year of the first annual Intergalactic Conference. Although, as he set the TARDIS, it began to spark and crash. The engine moved from side to side, rocking him with it. The floor began to rumble and shake, making its way from the wires deep within the heart to the very top of the ceiling. "You never give me a smooth ride, do you girl?" He yelled over the rumbling TARDIS, laughing. When the rumbling calmed down, he checked the coordinates to make sure that they were still intact.

They weren't.

Instead, the coordinates read

_YEAR:_ _2237 _

_LOCATION: EARTH_

_REGION: PANEM_

_EVENT: UNKNOWN _

_"Panem_?" The Doctor spat, confusingly. "Why'd you take me here?" he said, sliding his hand down the engine. He accquired his coat, and headed out ouf the TARDIS slowly. When he got out, he was in a rainforest type of environment - complete with animal noises and the sound of running water. "Well this can't be right," he mused to himself. "Panem's completly run by technology, and there's no forest district, to my understanding..." He began to look around at where he was. He took a couple of steps forward, noticing that the grass was a bit dry for a rainforest. The Doctor began to notice something was out of the ordinary. He sniffed the air. "1-point-4-9-5 kilograms per metre. That's...twice as much density as normal air. Something's wrong." His feelings were correct. He took out his sonic screwdriver and began to scan the sky. "Force...field?" He said, observing the scan. "This seems all too familiar...where am I..." He began to hit his head with his palm until he reached the verdict: "OH!" he exclaimed. "I know exactly where I am! I'm in the middle of Panem's Hunger Games," he said.

"And if this is 2237...then I must be right in the middle of the third Quarter Quell."

The moment the Doctor came to that realisation, an arrow missed him by an inch and flew right into the side of the TARDIS.


	2. Chapter 2

_I know every arrow must count, and they do. In the eerie light, I bring down monkey after monkey, targeting eyes and hearts and throats, so that each hit means a death. But still it wouldn't be enough without Finnick spearing the beasts like fish and flinging them aside, Peeta slashing away with his knife. I feel claws on my leg, down my back, before someone takes out the attacker. The air grows heavy with trampled plants, the scent of blood, and the musty stink of the monkeys. Peeta and Finnick and I position ourselves in a triangle, a few yards apart, our backs to one another. My heart sinks as my fingers draw back my last arrow. Then I remember Peeta has a sheath, too. And he's not shooting, he's hacking away with that knife. My own knife is out now, but the monkeys are quicker, can spring in and out so fast you can barely react._

The Doctor had made his way through the rainforest, trying to find the source of the mysterious arrow, carrying the suspected weapon in his hand. "Where are you," he murmured to himself. He had worried about the poor boy or girl who had been required to be in this cannibalistic competition, remembering the original war that started it. But of course, he was there. Suddenly, he heard the sound of shouting, a young girl's voice, no older than twenty.

"_Peeta!" I shout. "Your arrows!"_

_Peeta turns to see my predicament and is sliding off his sheath when it happens. A monkey lunges out of a tree for his chest. I have no arrow, no way to shoot. I can hear the thud of Finnick's trident finding another mark and know his weapon is occupied. Peeta's knife arm is disabled as he tries to remove the sheath. I throw my knife at the oncoming mutt but the creature somersaults, evading the blade, and stays on its trajectory._

The Doctor followed the sound of the girl's distressed call for help. He ran, ran as fast as he could, with the arrow still intact. _Wait a minute, _he thought, _this arrow must belong to her. She's fighting off whatever's out there. _When he reached the point of origin of the girl's voice, he was faced with the one thing he had encountered before.

_Ubithrax._

The Ubithrax were a race of monkey-like creatures, if you can imagine crossing a monkey with a demon. They were the most intelligent race on their home planet, however, and how the people of Panem seemed to grasp hold of them was a mystery to the Doctor. Lucky enough, he knew just how to fiend them off.

_Weaponless, defenseless, I do the only thing I can think of. I run for Peeta, to knock him to the ground, to protect his body with mine, even though I know I won't make it in time._

_H__e does, though__._

_Just one arrow, to the side..._he thought. He snuck up on the wild Ubithrax as it threatened to kill the girl and her two companions and stuck it. It fell to the ground, lifeless and all too unthreatening. He looked back at the remainder of the Ubithrax, and cocked his head as to say, "Are you sure?"

"_Come on, then! Come on!" shouts Peeta, panting with rage. But something has happened to the monkeys. They are withdrawing, backing up trees, fading into the jungle, as if some unheard voice calls them away._

"You know," The Doctor said, taking the bloody arrow out of the dead Ubithrax, "You really should fix your aim."

"Who are you?" one of the boys ask. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm the Doctor. Happy to be of service."

"A doctor? Did the Capitol send you?"  
"Do I _look_ like I'm from the Capitol?" The Doctor asked, motioning toward his brown pinstripe suit and white Converse.

"True," the boy said. "I'm Peeta. This is Katniss," he motioned to the girl, 'and Finnick." He motioned to the stockier male.

"Hello you," he said. "Now I want to make one thing completely clear: I do not work for your Captiol. You see my clothes. You hear the way I talk. I'm not here to hurt or harm any of you. Clearly I'm not one of the tributes. Trust me. I have been to the Capitol before and I've seen your games. It's wrong, what they're doing to you. I'm completely against their sick plan. I'm here to help."

"How do we know that?" Katniss asked.

"Look at this," he said. The Doctor raised up his arm sleeve, revealing his smooth forearm. "No marks. No injections. No tracker." He let down his sleeve. "They can see me, but they'll never find where I go. Don't you think that the Capitol would want to know where one of their slaves are at all times? Hm?"

Katniss stared at him, first in disbelief, then in acceptance. "Follow us," she said finally. "We're heading to the beach."

* * *

"Who the hell _is _that?" Plutarch asked, motioning to the mysterious man in brown on one of the Gamemaker's cameras.

"We...we're not sure, sir. About 10 minutes ago, a blue box..." - the Gamemaker rolled back the footage on the tape - "...appeared to materialise out of nowhere. We know that he got out of that."  
"Get me information on this box," Plutarch said. "I need to know how in the world he got in there."  
"Yes, sir."

"Sir?" Another Gamemaker said, female.

"What?"  
The other Gamemaker pulled up a holographic image of the blue box. "I've found information on the box and the man," she said. Plutarch raced over to her post. "It's called the TARDIS, Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. It can travel throughout space and time and land anywhere the operator chooses. That man you see..." she explained, now switching to an image of the man, "...is called the Doctor. He's the only known owner of that respective TARDIS. He's a Time Lord, not human, but humanoid."

"So a time traveler, a fucking _time traveler, _from another world, just hijacked our games."

"It would suppose so, sir."  
Plutarch thought for a minute, a million words running through his mind at once. Finally, he spoke: "Execute him."  
"Immediately, sir?" a Gamemaker asked.

"Like a tribute," Plutarch said, darkly. "Let him have his fun. Or better yet..." he said, realising his choices, "...let him live and play around with them. Keep your eye on him. Chances are he'll follow 12's alliance. Let him find out as much about Katniss Everdeen as he possibly can. Then bring him in."

"To the Capitol, sir?"

Plutarch chuckled menacingly. "But of course," he said. "I want him to meet our wonderful president himself."


End file.
